Vigilantes Posing As Police Bully Boys In Mumbai Mall For Hanging Out With Girls

In an another incident of moral policing, vigilantes posing as policemen in Mumbai’s Dombivali, made college students stand in a queue outside the Xperia Mall for roaming around with girls.

A report in Mumbai Mirror says that the men then took selfies and videos with the boys and uploaded them on WhatsApp. Three of them have been arrested by the Thane police.

On Wednesday, five men with lathis rounded up girls and boys from the Xperia Mall. While the boys were made to stand in a line, the girls were made to sit beside them. The “moral police” also took down the numbers and names of the boys and warned that they should not be seen in the area with the girls again.

Mumbai Mirror reported that after the video of the incident went viral, social worker Rehan Qureshi tweeted at the Thane police to take action.

Qureshi’s neighbour was also involved in the incident.

The vigilantes told the police that the boys were indulging in ‘indecent acts’.

Qureshi told the tabloid, “Even if the boys did all that the vigilantes have accused them of, who gave them the right to punish them. At the most, they should have called the police.”

Here’s a video of the incident:

The incident is reminiscent of what the anti-Romeo squads had done in Uttar Pradesh. Put into action by Yogi Adityanath, these vigilante groups had raised hell for even relatives of women who came to pick them up from college.

After harsh criticism of incidents that took place under the watch of the UP government, they were given guidelines of how not to behave with people.